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The add-on allows to filter and search threads based on Custom thread fields. The idea is to allow admins to utilize the power of custom thread fields to turn their forums into Directory, Classifieds, Shop or other types of content, for which filtering the data based on custom fields is vital.

The controls to filter the threads are added in Filters popup in the...

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I suggest to include tags in your addon. So people can filter/search based on both custom fields and tags.
Thread searching based on tags is important as custom fields too. Together they will do wonders.

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I suggest to include tags in your addon. So people can filter/search based on both custom fields and tags.
Thread searching based on tags is important as custom fields too. Together they will do wonders.

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This addon might become very powerful. Thank you for developing this. I needed this 4 years ago, but better late then never.
Are you planning to add more features to this? Specially will this addon only specialize in displaying search filters or is there a chance to enhance the Custom Fields? Cause currently imo it lacks 1 key component to become a classified/directory addon.

Dependent custom fields and the display of it should be core.
For example if we are on amazon.com and click on the directory "books", then the next list shows up, which is dependant to the directory "books", like "children books, magazines, textbooks, etc.".
So it would be nice to have the multiple dropdown as a dependable one. There is an unmaintained MIT licensed addon you could "borrow" the idea from, if you are interested.

And you should take the filters out of the filters area and place it above the thread title, but in the description you say it is planned already.

Well-known member

This addon might become very powerful. Thank you for developing this. I needed this 4 years ago, but better late then never.
Are you planning to add more features to this? Specially will this addon only specialize in displaying search filters or is there a chance to enhance the Custom Fields? Cause currently imo it lacks 1 key component to become a classified/directory addon.

Dependent custom fields and the display of it should be core.
For example if we are on amazon.com and click on the directory "books", then the next list shows up, which is dependant to the directory "books", like "children books, magazines, textbooks, etc.".
So it would be nice to have the multiple dropdown as a dependable one. There is an unmaintained MIT licensed addon you could "borrow" the idea from, if you are interested.

And you should take the filters out of the filters area and place it above the thread title, but in the description you say it is planned already.

Thank you for the suggestions. We are definitely planning to enhance the add-on further, but the same time we do not want to turn it into a "directory" add-on, as for many users that may be not the intended usage. The case you described is more fitting into a category structure instead of being custom field information. And "category" structure for threads is actually implemented by having different forums. So, you could have a forum "Books" with different types of books being sub-forums. Custom fields would be other characteristics of books (publisher, number of fields etc.), I understand, that this does not solve the problem fully, but with some additional customizations could create a basic directory system.

I am not sure which MIT licensed add-on you mean, please provide a link and we will check, and one more time evaluate the possibility of "dependable" custom fields. However, even with this feature implemented, I believe a real directory add-on should provide many more features. Feel free to elaborate further on the final result you would actually like to see, and we may decide to build another add-on that implements these features.

Well-known member

I think there is a misunderstanding here. I don't want it to become a "directory" addon, I was just trying to describe "dependable" by giving an example, in this case I chose the directory structure of amazon, but I wasn't trying to turn it into a directory addon.

Let's say we have a forum about anything and a forum-category is called "books".
And custom fields would be used to describe the characteristics, such as "publisher", "release date", "author", "language", etc. and specially "genre/type".

We don't want to create for every genre a subforum, cause imagine there can be hundreds of "types". You don't want to fill your forum category structure with tens or hundreds of subforums. You just want 1 "books" section, where custom fields deals with the rest. Maybe for books this might be only 20-30, we could have created subforums, but for example for car models/parts there could be hundreds of types.

So now I would pick from our "books" section the dependable dropdown field "genre". We can pick "Thriller", "Sci-fi", "Adventure", "Children", "Food", "Novels", "Academic", "School", "Language learning" etc.

I'd choose "Sci-Fi" and the next dropdown would occur which is dependable and in this case we could pick from "Space Travel", "Time Travel", "Aliens", "Futuristic", "Apocalyptic". I'd choose "Aliens".
Now another dependable could occur and list me the type of Aliens etc. You see I could go on and on.

Or instead of picking "Sci-Fi", I could have picked "Food". Now the dependable dropdown would list me cultures "Italian", "French", "Chinese" etc.
And then afterwards Ingredients or something.

You see the system can be very powerful. I could go into the book section and specifically find the type of book I want very easily.

Another good example would be a "country->city" one. I mean specially for a classified section it would be nice to be able to pick quickly. Nobody wants to create 200 subforums for every country. It would be much easier to have a dependable dropdown, where I could choose the country and afterwards the city and see what offers are there for my city.

This kind of examples can be made for literally any type of forum.

I hope I could explain what I meant and hopefully make it clear why it would be important.

I believe a real directory add-on should provide many more features. Feel free to elaborate further on the final result you would actually like to see, and we may decide to build another add-on that implements these features.

And in case you have the time or will to create a real directory addon, this kind of structure would be the best, click.
It would be nice to have this kind of page as a the landing page, instead of a portal or whatever CMS system is there. But this kind of directory addon, also integrated into threads, would be much work. With Custom Fields we kind of can realize a directory structure, just 1 missing feature would be dependant dropdowns as I tried to explain. In both cases actually, a real directory addon or the custom fields solution, both need dependable dropdowns if you want a serious database.

Well-known member

I think there is a misunderstanding here. I don't want it to become a "directory" addon, I was just trying to describe "dependable" by giving an example, in this case I chose the directory structure of amazon, but I wasn't trying to turn it into a directory addon.

Let's say we have a forum about anything and a forum-category is called "books".
And custom fields would be used to describe the characteristics, such as "publisher", "release date", "author", "language", etc. and specially "genre/type".

We don't want to create for every genre a subforum, cause imagine there can be hundreds of "types". You don't want to fill your forum category structure with tens or hundreds of subforums. You just want 1 "books" section, where custom fields deals with the rest. Maybe for books this might be only 20-30, we could have created subforums, but for example for car models/parts there could be hundreds of types.

So now I would pick from our "books" section the dependable dropdown field "genre". We can pick "Thriller", "Sci-fi", "Adventure", "Children", "Food", "Novels", "Academic", "School", "Language learning" etc.

I'd choose "Sci-Fi" and the next dropdown would occur which is dependable and in this case we could pick from "Space Travel", "Time Travel", "Aliens", "Futuristic", "Apocalyptic". I'd choose "Aliens".
Now another dependable could occur and list me the type of Aliens etc. You see I could go on and on.

Or instead of picking "Sci-Fi", I could have picked "Food". Now the dependable dropdown would list me cultures "Italian", "French", "Chinese" etc.
And then afterwards Ingredients or something.

You see the system can be very powerful. I could go into the book section and specifically find the type of book I want very easily.

Another good example would be a "country->city" one. I mean specially for a classified section it would be nice to be able to pick quickly. Nobody wants to create 200 subforums for every country. It would be much easier to have a dependable dropdown, where I could choose the country and afterwards the city and see what offers are there for my city.

This kind of examples can be made for literally any type of forum.

I hope I could explain what I meant and hopefully make it clear why it would be important.

And in case you have the time or will to create a real directory addon, this kind of structure would be the best, click.
It would be nice to have this kind of page as a the landing page, instead of a portal or whatever CMS system is there. But this kind of directory addon, also integrated into threads, would be much work. With Custom Fields we kind of can realize a directory structure, just 1 missing feature would be dependant dropdowns as I tried to explain. In both cases actually, a real directory addon or the custom fields solution, both need dependable dropdowns if you want a serious database.

Active member

Like to buy this adding as soon as you release this for the resource manager.
I think resource manager is the real place for this add on with classified, shop, directory and really endless possibilities.
Resource manager even has the interface and functionality differentiated from the forum just for that. If you try to implement above possibilities in normal forum interface you will have to heavily modify the post interface, thread submit form, member profile page, search etc.. Resource manager already have many of them built in.
If you use forum your shop ads gonna get mixed up with normal forum discussions too.
So resources manager is the way better solution than forum for this add on.

Well-known member

Like to buy this adding as soon as you release this for the resource manager.
I think resource manager is the real place for this add on with classified, shop, directory and really endless possibilities.
Resource manager even has the interface and functionality differentiated from the forum just for that. If you try to implement above possibilities in normal forum interface you will have to heavily modify the post interface, thread submit form, member profile page, search etc.. Resource manager already have many of them built in.
If you use forum your shop ads gonna get mixed up with normal forum discussions too.
So resources manager is the way better solution than forum for this add on.

Well-known member

In this release, we have implemented an option to move Filters on forum view pages from the pop-up to the sidebar. The setting can be activated in product's settings page. It can also be overridden for each individual forum in Edit Forum/Category pages. Child forums/nodes inherit the setting from their parents or use board default.

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Well-known member

It is definitely an enhancement over the default place in the search popup. Having this in the sidebar is a huge plus.
But it brings some problems for some cases. If you don't have many choices, having it in the sidebar is great, but if you do have a lot of choices, the sidebar can get pretty long as the sidebar has a low width, so it stacks and stacks.

It would be great if there could be an option to move the filters above the thread list. This way we would have the whole width of the page and the access would be great, too. That would be my suggestion.

Well-known member

It is definitely an enhancement over the default place in the search popup. Having this in the sidebar is a huge plus.
But it brings some problems for some cases. If you don't have many choices, having it in the sidebar is great, but if you do have a lot of choices, the sidebar can get pretty long as the sidebar has a low width, so it stacks and stacks.

It would be great if there could be an option to move the filters above the thread list. This way we would have the whole width of the page and the access would be great, too. That would be my suggestion.

Active member

Hello
I'm looking for an add on that will search my custom fields and show them in search results. For instance, a custom field might ask.." What city is this item located?" The seller puts in Chicago and posts the listing for a used video game. The potential buyer logs in and needs to be able to search xyx video game in Chicago area. Does your app do this and if possible would there me anyway I can try it out on my community (not live yet) before I buy it? I've purchased a few add ons and other that aren't working well so can't keep shelling out money for add-ons with constant tech problems.

Well-known member

Hello
I'm looking for an add on that will search my custom fields and show them in search results. For instance, a custom field might ask.." What city is this item located?" The seller puts in Chicago and posts the listing for a used video game. The potential buyer logs in and needs to be able to search xyx video game in Chicago area. Does your app do this and if possible would there me anyway I can try it out on my community (not live yet) before I buy it? I've purchased a few add ons and other that aren't working well so can't keep shelling out money for add-ons with constant tech problems.

Well-known member

In this release, we have implemented an option to move Filters on forum view pages from the pop-up to the top of thread list. The setting can be activated in product's settings page. It can also be overridden for each individual forum in Edit Forum/Category pages. Child forums/nodes inherit the setting from their parents or use board default.